darylhuff

I'm glad to hear these are starting to become available. I'm on the waiting list for the iPod verison from Vais Tech. You said that the AIC-100x emulates the MD device in your car. Does that mean that station names and song titles are displayed on the screen of your radio head unit?

Go to http://techinfo.lexus.com/ and create an account. You can buy a 1 day pass to all the Lexus tech documentation you want. I think it is something like $10 for the day pass and you can download the documents to your computer for future use. Just buy the day pass and download everything you think you'll ever need.

Vaistech appears to have a solution for your problem coming out in the next months or so. http://www.vaistech.com/avic100.html I'm waiting for their iPod integration unit.

Help is on the way. Check out http://www.vaistech.com/aic100x.html. It is supposed to be released this month (Jan/05) and integrate in to the Navigation/audio Lexus head unit. I'm waiting for the iPod version of this unit that is supposed to ship this month as well.

I couldn't agree more on the VW comment. I actually had a Touareg. It was a great car. I loved the styling of the car, the ride was fantastic, the features were top of the line, and it had plenty of power (310 HP in my V8). The problem was that it was a Volkswagen. I had never had a VW before and I guess I should have done my research a bit better before buying. VW has consistently been at or near the bottom of the JD Powers ranking for the past 5 years. My Touareg had nothing but problems -- transmission lurching, battery problems, a flashing compass light, emissions problems, fogging windshield with the A/C on, ... To make matters worse, VW service is worse than their car's quality. I had my car in the shop twice for 7 days for a problem that should have taken no more than 2 days max to fix. To make a long story short, I'm glad I live in California with some of the most consumer friendly laws. After the 4th unsuccessful attempt to fix the lurching transmission I got a lawyer and lemoned the car. I actually got most of my money back thanks to the CA Lemon Law. http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=1430528 I'd never known anyone that had lemoned a car, but in addition to mine, I know 2 other folks that have lemoned their Touareg and the vwvortex alias has had a steady stream of folks doing the same with their Touareg. There are a lot of good SUV's out there. The Touareg is not one of them.

You can now confirm (actually disprove) the re-tuned engine rumor for the 2005 LX470. Lexus has posted all of the 2005 details except the GX on their web site. Here's the link for the 2005 LX470 which still lists a 235HP engine. http://www.lexus.com/models/lx/performance.html

The 2005 GX470's are on the ships on the way to the US right now. They should be in dealers hands by the end of September. I've confirmed with three different dealers that they do have a retuned engine (VVT) in them. They also are supposed to have the newer Bluetooth enabled audio systems. They didn't know if they had added the "Lexus Night View" feature from the 2005 LX470, or the high intensity headlights of the 2005 LX and RX models. The dealers do seem to think that there will be a higher percentage of 2005 GX470's with KDSS.